Wednesday, May 14, 2008

For those of you who would like to know more about Frédéric Bastiat and his work, the Online Library of Liberty offers a nice collection of his works in a variety of formats, in either English or French, some downloadable. The collection is also searchable.

Here is the Library's introduction to Bastiat:

Claude Frédéric Bastiat was a French economist, legislator, and writer who championed private property, free markets, and limited government. Perhaps the main underlying theme of Bastiat’s writings was that the free market was inherently a source of “economic harmony” among individuals, as long as government was restricted to the function of protecting the lives, liberties, and property of citizens from theft or aggression. To Bastiat, governmental coercion was only legitimate if it served “to guarantee security of person, liberty, and property rights, to cause justice to reign over all.” [The image comes from “The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.”]